Tabs

Friday, 22 May 2009

Heather Kuzmich, since America's Next Top Model, has accomplished so much. It's been a few years now, and the amount of work she has done is fascinating. She has obviously improved as a model, incorporating her unique style and personality into every shot.

She is definitely going to be even more successful, having already signed on to Elite Model Management in Chicago, and models for "Blue Eyed Girl".

Thursday, 21 May 2009

Song Hyo Kyo is an up and coming Korean actress and model, fronting the brand LANEIGE and recently starred in her debut American film "Fetish". It sounds like quite an interesting storyline also:

In the psychological thriller “Fetish”, Song will play the role of a Korean woman with supernatural powers, who possesses an American woman’s body in order to steal her husband. She will star opposite Austrian actor Arno Frisch, who is well known from the 1997 film “Funny Games”.

She has also been in Korean Dramas: Full House, Unending Love, and The Worlds within.

She is a really beautiful woman with a great kind personality, spirited, and bubbly, and hopefully she can break into the English/American Market!

There is also a rumour about Full House 2 which will reprise Song to her role, but I personally would not like this sequel, as it would ruin what was presented in the first. Also Song is now too famous to return perhaps...

Saturday, 16 May 2009

Now, art can be almost anything, and this proves it. Just a plain cup of coffee can be turned into a masterpiece by playing around with the froth... I personally am amazed and would love to be served a cup of this... I don't drink coffee, but I might if I get one like some of the images below! Ha... I'll take a cup of hot chocolate instead...

I really like the animal ones, and the more defined images. They are not only interesting, but I'm sure they're yummy too.. I love the chocolate powder on top of hot beverages... yumm...

Here is a fill in.. I realised I haven't been blogging about this season, purely because of the lack of time and writing it is effort! Haha.... no, its just been off schedule... so to sum up the whole season in one blog post... ALLISON HARVARD ROCKS... Not only is this cycle the one with most drama (debatable), but also the one with the most amazing girl ever...

Anyway, I have liked Allison from episode one. Ever since she said she liked nosebleeds and everyone went "huh" I was like, SHE is amazing and so interesting... and she has been funny throughout the whole cycle...

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

In the beginning there was The Sims, and about a decade later, we are given the third in the series: The Sims 3!! A huge transformation has taken place in this time, such as giving our sims a third dimension, the ability to grow in life stages etc.. but in this latest addition, we are given so much more!

The biggest change is the seamless neighbourhood. No longer do we need to load a screen to step out our front door, we can do it just with a click. And you have a whole town to explore! Whether it be the graveyard, the town centre, shopping in town, exploring the beach or visiting neighbours, your sims will have loads to do! Sims that you don't control will also age gradually along with the ones you play with, so you no longer get daughters that are older than you or older siblings being younger.

The sims themselves are more self sufficient, so you no longer have to dictate their domestic needs, taking them to the toilet every 5 mins and getting them to make grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti. This allows you to focus more about exploring the town, building relationships and expanding your career. Not to say that those needs are no longer there, because they play a big part towards your sims and how it affects their mood opposed to life and death.

CAS (Create A Sim) has also had a major rehaul. Sims look much more realistic, and generally more rounded and less computer jagged. Sims can now be as thin or fat as you like, with a body slider, you can drag their body shape to your content. Hair colour, eye colour, and clothes can all be customised and recoloured with a large colour pallete, so all sims become unique. They are also more realistic looking and more human. Not only do they look good, they can be good, or bad, or evil... with over 60 traits, sims can have their unique personality which will help or hinder their daily life! Traits such as kleptomaniac, never-nude and hopeless romantic are just a few that will make playing this game so much more intriguing. And another 10 or so can be unlocked- including pyromaniac!

There are 10 careers in the game, including criminal, doctor, rockstar, chef and so on, and allows you to advance in so many ways. No longer are they solely based on skills, your sims mood and performance with the boss and other colleagues are also important. Also, switching and merging careers is also possible. Midway through a career, you may be asked if you would like to switch to a similar career!

The interface is extremely easy to use. An area of the buttons dictate camera angles and views, and to fans' delight, you can now look up at your sim at a steeper angle! A range of tabs give you information about your sims' skills, career, social, inventory, and stats... which will help you guide them better.

The Build and Buy Mode have also been rehauled, having pictures represent different items, and this, in a way is more visually appealing and helps you find what you need, but yet takes time to get used to. A note is that whilst the overall amount of objects may be considerably higher than sims 2, the individual sections do lack variation, and one relies on Create-A-Style* for originality.

*Create-A-Style is an in game tool that allows you to customise almost anything! Hair/Walls/Furniture.. and you can choose any colour (palette available) and pattern available from the catalogue.

Web features have not been ignored, and players can seamlessly upload youtube videos or movies of machinama, or gameplay, upload custom content and designs/sims/houses that they've made, and upload their online page, like a FB or web blog.

Upon registering your game, you can download a whole new neighbourhood, Riverview, which is absolutely stunning. The farm theme is fantastic, and it looks rural and cosy. You also get 1000 sim points (worth £6) to spend in the Sim store to buy those coveted hairstyles/furnitures or decor!

The online Sims3.com also has a large community forum, downloads section, sims 3 store and more, allowing you to maximise your experience with players around the world.

THe graphics are highly improved due to the seamless neighbourhood and the unique locations and scenic views. The sky changes throughout the day, stars come out, the sun rises and sets, the waves roll.. it is visually STUNNING. Sim interaction is not as rigid as before, and they fit right in.

You may ask how it is possible to do all this and not lag? As the screen moves out or you zoom out, images become less detailed and only load when you zoom in!

Now onto the CONS- difficulty for Custom Content.. due to the new 3D meshes and the way it has to work with sims and surrounding objects, it is made more difficult, so it will take a while before we see those first set of well made celebrity sims or anime hairstyles!

The game is suitable for anyone- sims fans will love the improvements, whilst those who have not tried before will be WOWED by this life simulation. I preordered from HMV for £30 and got a free mouse, which was well worth it, although it can be bought for around £28 online.

Saturday, 2 May 2009

For 53 years, men have defended their country for pride, honour, and glory, in an ongoing war, full of heartbreak and tear shed. Every May, Europe becomes a battlefield, a place of carnage. In just one night, the fate of over 50 countries is determined. There can only be one winner each year, leaving the others in a state worst then death- a condition known as total humiliation, the symptoms of which are disgrace and mild embarrassment. This is the world of Eurovision, where guns are traded for mics and bullets for glitter. Who marches when you can dance?

Since before I can remember, the nations of the EU have fought over money and power, but who knew that they also cared to see which country has the best singer (or band) - and maybe a little too much. This annual display of song and dance is known to us as the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), although you can't quite escape it. With its long history, one would assume it to be worthwhile. It's not, but at least it is interesting, and in that aspect it doesn't disappoint.

A majority of countries take it very seriously, whilst some very close to home, don't. I'm talking about the UK. While others propel their biggest stars through Eurovision into European, even international, stardom, we send our Z-list acts even further off the radar into artist abyss, only to be remembered for getting "nil points". Even Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, world renowned composer of musical theatre, can't stand our recent disgraces at Eurovision and has composed the song for this year, for our country's sake. How patriotic. But it gets worse. Instead of sending an artist of any kind, we've elected a "nobody" from the general public and the worst part is; she's good. Jade can actually sing!

Andrew's song will be pitched against a hoard of Euro-hits/trash (delete appropriately) for example, last year's catchy tune "Qele Qele" (Come on, Come on) from Armenia, which fared extremely well, even though the rather hot singer in a shrunken vest, Sirusho, could barely project her voice and sounded like my sister Cherry singing in the shower. Qele!! Not quite the Um-b-rella, ella, ella effect it needed to have, but props for trying. The year before, Russia shot to third place with Serebro (Didn't we already talk about her? No, they just sound pretty much the same) with lyrics "Put the cherry on the cake and taste my cherry pie." Err... No comment. Let's just say my sister was less than impressed. So obviously, it's not just the song that counts, which moves us nicely onto costume. Walking in on the wrong act, one cannot be blamed for thinking that either Cirque De Soleil or porn was being displayed on their family friendly TV screen. In 2008, quite a few countries thrusted pretty girls onto centre stage: Greece, Ukraine, Armenia, Andorra... Show a bit of flesh and the men will be scrambling for the phones. Talking of men, one man followed this trend. Hunky Russian pop artist, Dima Bilan, who came 2nd in 2006, found the winning formula for 2008: unbuttoning his shirt after every verse and chorus, so that by the end, his well toned torso was broadcast throughout Europe. Well, I know who all the women voted for and it certainly paid dividends. On the other hand, some choose to be a little more erratic; as if that could happen! We've seen angels singing opera, pirates dancing and Finland's demonic monsters-who actually won. The list goes on. It just shows that one of the most important ingredients to a successful Eurovision act is elaborate and fun costume- or lack of.

The final ingredient to a WOW-ing performance is dance. Dance? I won't even go there, because they're just distractions, as proven by Maria Serifović. Her passionately sung Serbo-ballad "Molitva" was a hit with Europe, making her winner of 2007. I certainly didn't like it, much. She looked like a school boy half-way through his sex change and her scruffy uniform was just that. Scruffy. Avril Lavigne can teach her a lesson or two on mastering that tie. Nevertheless, a win is a win and thanks to Serbia's butch bonanza, the contest the following year was certainly more kinky boots than dirty trainers.

Under all the glitter and glam, we're indeed back to politics. It might not be the singer, the song, the costume or the dance, but simply because of a country's popularity or unpopularity which determines the winners and losers, as demonstrated by the UK's annual struggle to climb up the leader board. A phenomenon known as "Bloc Voting" has been observed, where countries close to each other vote for each other, an example of which is the Nordic Block: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland; all giving high scoring points to each other. As they say, birds of a feather flock together. How convenient that the UK is an island and the only "douze points" we get are from Ireland, and that's if they decide to be kind.

Perhaps that's the reason why the UK ceased to care, sending the likes of Daz Sampson (with his "entourage" of young teenage girls in skimpy skirts) and Scooch (with a sex-fuelled-flight theme) to the chopping block, forever imprinting into our brains the idea of paedophilia and in-flight rape. For ten years, the UK's position on the leader board rarely escaped double digits. But we still have hope. In 2002, Jessica Garlick finished in third place with her power ballad, Come Back. Hopefully, with Andrew Lloyd Webber's power ballad It's My Time, Jade will reach similar success, and will come back with Eurovision glory. Maybe, just maybe, it really is our time. But don't count on it.

No matter who wins, each contest provides a platform and an opportunity for talent to be recognised. Once upon a time, Lulu, Celine Dion and ABBA all performed at the Eurovision Song Contest, all of which are now known worldwide, moving on to global success. In addition to "good" music *cough cough*, viewers can obtain cultural insight, whether it's through a Denmark drag queen (watch out Thailand!) or a beautifully sung Norwegian folk song. Even if we don't learn much from Eurovision, we're certain to get a good laugh.

Friday, 1 May 2009

I have looked at this futurist as part of my art work and he has to be my favourite futurist. the colours and shapes are fantastic, and although it verges on abstract, if you look closely, the images he tries to incorporate are visible. They are stunning because they look so texturised, but is infact painted, and i did a transcription of a piece of his work (Pic 3) in oil pastel and it just made me feel like wow, it takes a long time and alot of work to do and to truly appreciate his efforts.

I have attached a selection of his work, my favourite of which has to be Dynamism of a football player, because it looks like an exploding star, so nebulous and colourful, but all his other works are to be commended too!